Fear and loathing in La Paz

La Paz Travel Blog

On the
first morning in La Paz it became clear that Aart would not be going anywhere.
During the night he became seriously ill and it was all he could do to stay in
bed. I brought breakfast to him but he hardly ate anything. That day I would
take a look at La Paz on my own and now and then return to the hotel to see how
Aart was doing. He spent the rest of the day in bed with a fever and diarrhea as
I remember correctly.

At noon I
set out to find some plain bread, cheese and bananas for him, but that was a
greater challenge that I expected. I don’t speak any Spanish, but I had a
dictionary with me. I went to a local lunchroom to ask for plain bread and
cheese, but it still took about fifteen minutes of talking and making gestures
before the good man and I understood eachother.

We had no
information at all about La Paz.

The Witches' Market

I had never come so fully unprepared to a
city, hehehe. The Man At The Hotel gave me a map and encircled some good
restaurants for me.

As for La
Paz:

La Paz
seriously surprised me! I had looked at La Paz on Google Earth and saw it was
in the middle of a barren desertland and I though: I would never want to go
there! And I didn’t imagine I ever would. But I went and it was really a fun
city, besides the fact that I was worrying about Aart’s condition. As opposed
to all the city blocks that you find in so many cities in the Americas, the
road of La Paz follow the contours of the canyon it was built in and no road is
straight. They go up and down and swing to the left and right. It gives the
city a unique character.

Typical
things to notice in La Paz is the graffiti that addresses the president.
Everywhere messages like “Evo, si!” can be read. Another thing is the Aymara
flag, which is a different version of the striped rainbow Inca flag in Peru.
The Aymara flag is a rainbow as well, but it is blocked instead of striped. A
third flag that can be seen is a red-green flag for indigenous peoples in
general, which became very popular with the current president.

The streets of La Paz

Among
things not to miss is the Witches’ Market, where Bolivians can buy dried foetus
llama’s and dried frogs. The Aymara people bury a dried baby llama underneath
the first stones of the house for good luck, or so I am told. I smelled
something awful when I was there but it might have been food instead of a dried
llama foetus.

The main
square is a very nice but rather small place with the presidential palace on it
and a mayor cathedral. I got some excellent ice cream there and sat untill I
got fed up with the thousands of pigeons around me (seriously, I have never
seen so many pigeons, and I have seen Amsterdam).

Among other
things I saw was a green colored market where people can buy all things coca,
and off course the coca museum. I recommend the coca museum because it is
professionally set up and fun to visit.